Time to take a breath: AI Fatigue, Driving ROI and Priming your Team for Effective Use in 2025

In the months that followed, lots of New Zealand businesses also considered their approach and how they too could take advantage – lots of caution prevailed, and what we’ve generally seen is a mix of ChatGPT/Google Bard use at an individual level, with some organisations deploying Microsoft Copilot for M365 into their Office suites, generally for power users and key staff. 

Interestingly, various reports suggest that while only 20% of surveyed NZ businesses now say they are using AI in their organisations (with a structure and a plan), about two thirds of people within those businesses say they are using AI – with ChatGPT being the runaway popular choice. This uncertainty around use tends to bring more caution, and so businesses find themselves with limited ROI (from limited planning and investment), and some of the concerns of shadow AI to go with that.  

In addition, just a few weeks ago at the Fortune Global Forum, McKinsey Senior Partner and North America Chair Eric Kutcher spoke to CEO’s and business leaders recognising the opportunity 18 months ago, but lamenting that McKinsey are seeing “extraordinary frustration with the lack of return on investment so far.” Further still, a Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index Report found that 79% of business leaders believe AI is necessary for their long-term success, and yet 59% of those leaders worry about measuring the impact of AI once rolled out. What that tells us is that this is not a New Zealand only problem – and as all OECD economies struggle to grow and get out of the economic parachutes since COVID, the opportunity remains remarkable to drive gains with well used, closely measured AI. 

So, what’s the right way to get past some of the fatigue and frustration, and meaningfully deploy AI in your organisation for measurable return? Firstly, it’s really important to consider your use cases. It’s easy to fall into telling yourself “we have to use AI in our business”, without a place or process to use it for. Instead, try asking yourself “what are we doing in our business that we could use AI for?”, and build out use cases from there. 

Secondly, while ChatGPT can make the tricky easy and the complicated seem simple, the complexity of integrating AI systems into existing workflows cannot be underestimated. Successful AI deployment can require a substantial overhaul of processes, data management frameworks, and employee training programs – and that data needs to be accurate to start with – so setting aside people and time to take this on is really vital. Upfront investment is needed – and Stratus Blue’s 3FREE can help you. 

3FREE is a structured way to deploy AI, have support at every step, and make sure you’re measuring every part of what you do. 3FREE delivers incremental improvements with a pilot team in your business, giving you some quick wins while helping to shape your long term planning. The process includes a data and systems review to make sure you’re ready to move forward, and strategic sessions to guide your thinking, policies and governance approach too. 

We know the research says that people are keen to use AI in their work and already are – take the next step to help them do this in a way that’s good for everyone in an organisation.